2008:223 - Curraheen, Cork

A previously unrecorded ring-ditch was excavated during construction of a gas pipeline from Ballynora to Lehenaghmore to the west of Cork city. The ring-ditch was located on low-lying ground (19m OD) at the southern edge of the Lee Valley c. 248m east of a Bronze Age enclosure (08E0803, No. 224, below) and c. 19m east of a fulacht fiadh (080E804, No. 225, below), both sites also excavated as part of the project. The site comprised a circular enclosing ditch which became apparent in the course of topsoil-stripping as a charcoal-enriched soil. The ditch contained two distinct fills of charcoal, one lying close to the surface on the eastern side, but dipping on the western side, and a layer of charcoal lying intermittently close to the base of the ditch. The ditch was cut on to the natural subsoil and was 11m in diameter externally and 8.9m internally. The profile of the ditch was U-shaped. It was between 0.83m and 1.6m wide and between 0.24m and 0.35m deep. The entrance was on the eastern side, consisting of a 1.35m wide area of unexcavated clay.
The fill in the south-east quadrant of the ditch contained a decorated glass bead, a fragment of a large yellow glass bead and nine tiny blue glass beads. Concentrations of burnt bone were in the east and south-east quadrants of the ditch with some smaller fragments elsewhere. A pit was located inside the ditch at the northern side while a second pit lay c. 7m to the east of the entrance.